Often patients come to my Beverly Hills practice who want to remove fine wrinkles from their faces.  There are many conservative options to improve wrinkles including noninvasive in office treatments such as fillers, Botox and nonablative lasers.  These treatments can offer some improvements but they are usually very limited.  There are essentially 3 treatments that are highly successful in removing fine lines and these include Phenol chemical peel, co2 laser, and surgical dermabrasion. Unlike the in office procedures, these 3 treatments all require general anesthesia and are assosciated with significant healing time.  I always spend a great deal of time discussing all options with my patients to determine which is best for a given person. In summary, for those people who really want to eliminate the wrinkles as much as possible, the more aggressive resurfacing procedures are the best options by far as long as that person can tolerate the healing period.

I am part of a journal review group in Beverly Hills where the top Plastic surgeons, Facial Plastic surgeons and Occuloplastic surgeons from Beverly Hills and Los Angeles get together to review the latest information from around the world related to the field of Plastic Surgery.  At the last meeting on Janurary 27, we discussed rhinoplasty techniques, eyelid techniques and liquid facelift or non surgical facelift techniques.  The main filler we discussed was Sculptra.  Sculptra is a filler that lasts about 1 to 2 years and therefore has the same longevity as Radiesse.  I have a lot of experience with both Sculptra and Radiesse and have been very pleased with the results of the liquid facelift which is a great procedure for the appropriate person.  The liquid facelift can give a nice rejuvenation to the hollow lower eyelid and cheek region as well as fill some of the lines and shallow areas of the face.  We can combine Botox and lasers to give a more comprehensive improvement to the face. These results are not as long lasting or as powerful as a surgical facelift but there is less healing time and less cost involved.

The nonsurgical nose job is a procedure that I continue to do for the appropriate candidates.  I was at a medical meeting recently where one of the lectures was on the nonsurgical nose job.  I discovered that this doctor who was giving the lecture trademarked the name nonsurgical nose job a few years ago and now it can no longer be used without his permission.  I at first laughed at that notion.  I have no doubt that he saw one of the shows that I did and got the idea from there.  I am not sure how the law works but I hope that I don’t get into trouble for mentioning the name nonsurgical nose job in this blog.  I have a video copy of all of the media that I did on this procedure 7 years ago and I wonder if I would be violating the law if I put them on my website now.  I probably won’t put that information on my website because I don’t think it merits special attention at this point because there are so few people who are actually good candidates for the procedure and it is so limited in what it can accomplish but wouldn’t that be something if I legally couldn’t display or mention something on my website that I first exposed to the public?  I have never considered myself to be a good business man.  I am a doctor first and foremost and my craft is what I spend all my time thinking about and perfecting and this is just another perfect example of exactly that.

Who would have ever thought to trademark the name of a procedure that you didn’t develop?

As a result I have become very involved in learning and helping to pioneer the latest and greatest in noninvasive technologies.  The E-Matrix system by Syneron, Inc. is the latest in fractional skin resurfacing with radio frequency.  I also frequently use the Pixel system by Alma which is the latest in fractional erbium resurfacing.  Both of these systems allow for the improvement of fine lines and wrinkles, and refreshes the skin’s texture and firms the skin creating a youthful appearance.  I have also been doing more IPL or fotofacials.  This is a noninvasive technology to improve brown and red spots that are the result of age and sun damage.  There has also been an increased demand for the Accent which is the latest technology for noninvasive body shaping and skin tightening.  These technologies all allow for a painless and easy recovery with essentially no downtime. 

 The gold standard for resurfacing is still the CO2 laser and Phenol peel both of which I still do but not as often.  These 2 techniques are the most powerful methods to eliminate facial wrinkles but both are associated with downtime anywhere from 2 weeks to several months and in today’s economic climate, that potential downtime is too long for many people.

I am a board certified facial plastic surgeon and obviously the face is my passion and my area of expertise as I have spent a majority of my life studying the face and honing in and perfecting my surgical and nonsurgical techniques.  Often times my patients ask about rejuvenation of their hands at the same time as their facial rejuvenation procedure.  I have recently discovered the benefit of injecting Radiesse to the hands.  I basically use the same principles that I use for the face to inject the hands to restore volume.  It is quite dramatic and helps to make the hands look more youthful.  My patients have been thrilled with this procedure and I am happy to be able to offer this as an adjunct to my facial rejuvenation techniques.